David Lopez, Direct of Information Technology at Children’s Hunger Fund, has spent almost his entire life serving the church.
As a kid, David remembered singing in the children’s choir and, by the time he was eleven, he was learning audio and video skills and serving with the tech team.
I thought that was going to be my trajectory,” said David. “God just used those connections and network [in audio and video] to really build me up, but I never intended to do IT.
However, when someone at his church approached him about taking an IT role, David realized how much God had really been preparing him for that. Now, 20 years later, he’s served big and small churches across the country and, through CHF, around the world.
After 13 years at his church and one year at a consulting company providing IT services to churches and ministries across the country, David found CHF through a posting on Indeed.
He was working remotely at the consulting company and, David said, “What I really missed is being in community with people, having a team to build up, and being around other people consistently moving toward a mission.”
While it may not seem like IT service requests connect directly to delivering hope to suffering children, David sees his team as a central component to the mission of CHF.
My favorite thing is that we work with everyone. We are central to everything. There is not a single department I don’t work with and very few people I don’t work with.
This connectivity ties into one of CHF’s five distinctives: Prioritizing Relationships. For David, he prioritizes relationships through IT by looking for the “human-centric” approach to technology. This causes him to ask questions like “What do people need?” “How can we make things better?” and “What are people struggling with?” to provide solutions that will serve the organization well.
All these questions have brought the IT team—and the whole of CHF—to a huge undertaking called Digital Transformation, a multi-year project spearheaded by David, that aims to update the way CHF uses technology.
This project is what excites him most about the year ahead. He is passionate about giving the staff at CHF the processes and programs needed to do their jobs with increased efficiency and clarity.
However, David is not just concerned about the experiences of CHF staff.
Last June, he attended a CHF trip to the Dominican Republic. David had the chance to visit the homes of children in need and interact with the faithful pastors and church volunteers, and he also saw opportunities to do even more through IT.
After going to the Dominican Republic and seeing what was there, I think it changed a lot of my views as to what is considered good technology and practices here and how do we get that to translate to someone who might be two hours away from basic cell service.
Outside of CHF, David continues to serve in the local church alongside his wife, Courtney, who he met through the church when they were in high school. Both of their lives have been characterized by using the talents and gifts the Lord has given them to serve His people.
Having come to know the Lord at age eight, David explains, “My testimony really is of service and serving the Lord in ministry through behind-the-scenes stuff.”
